Chapter 409: Chapter 216: Early Morning
Juhua nodded.
She had always been extremely cautious, never hoarding profitable and conspicuous inventions. ’In my opinion,’ she thought, ’that’s just asking for trouble.’ She preferred to popularize the invention, letting others study, develop, and profit from it. As long as she had one to use herself, that was good enough.
She asked, "Has Cousin Laifu started selling the rice threshers yet?"
Qingmu shook his head. "Not yet. I told him not to rush. First, we’ll make a few for our own family to use. We’ll start selling them here once we hear from Qinghui."
As they talked, Juhua noticed the sky had grown dark and hurriedly called out to the river, "Here, duckies! Here, duckies...!"
At her call, the ducks drifted toward the bank. They scrambled ashore, waddling unsteadily. Without a pause, their big webbed feet went SLAP, SLAP, SLAP as they scurried straight for home.
Laishou slapped the ox’s back energetically, shouting, "Time to go home! Time to go home!" Black Dog shot ahead with a WHOOSH. He would run for a bit, then stop and wait for the ox. Once it caught up, he’d dash forward again.
Juhua and Qingmu flanked Laishou, walking slowly toward their large courtyard. At the gate, their grandmother was looking out for them.
Near Little Qing Mountain, three clusters of light now shone. Uphill from Juhua’s house, beyond Zhang Huai’s place, stood Li Changming’s newly built three-room, tile-roofed house. Downhill from Juhua’s was Shorty Zhou’s home, which was still under construction. It was still noisy over there; clearly, the workers were still eating dinner.
Juhua gazed at the dark, looming mountains and said to Qingmu, "With more people living here, it’s not as quiet as it used to be, but it feels safer."
Qingmu nodded. "Before, we were the only family out here, and it was too isolated. You wouldn’t know, but when I was little, you could hear wolves howling on summer nights! The sound made all the hairs on my body stand on end. I never dared to sleep outside."
A shiver went down Juhua’s spine. She quickly asked, "How come we don’t hear them howling anymore?"
"Oh, they’re still around," Qingmu said. "But with more people hunting on the mountain, they’ve retreated deeper into the wilderness. They still come out and cause trouble sometimes."
Juhua felt a pang of fear. Thinking of all their chickens, ducks, and pigs, she said to Qingmu, "Brother, let’s get another dog. With so much livestock, having two dogs would give me more peace of mind."
Qingmu reassured her, "Wolves are afraid of people, too. With more families living here now, they’re even less likely to come down the mountain. But getting another dog is a good idea. I’ll ask around and see if anyone has puppies."
Just then, they reached the courtyard gate. Mrs. Wang greeted them with a benevolent smile, lifting Laishou from the ox’s back. "Oh, my! My precious grandson knows how to herd the ox now!"
Laishou said proudly, "Yes! Grandma, I’m going to herd the ox every day from now on." He felt that herding the ox was a very honorable task.
Qingmu chuckled at the boy’s words and led the ox to the back, herding the ducks into their pen along the way. Juhua and Mrs. Wang took Laishou inside.
Hearing her grandson say he wanted to herd oxen, Mrs. Wang quickly told him, "When Laishou grows up, he’s going to study and become a Scholar. We don’t herd oxen."
Laishou frowned. "Laishou doesn’t want to be a Scholar! Laishou wants to grow rice—two crops of rice! And feed the pigs and ducks, build a big house, and plant fruit trees!"
Juhua was stunned. ’So the boy heard everything I told my brother and actually made it his life’s ambition.’
Mrs. Wang asked in bemusement, "How did he get so sensible? He already knows about growing rice to feed the animals."
Juhua smiled and told her grandmother what she and her brother had been talking about. Mrs. Wang chuckled. "Laishou, farming is very hard work..."
Whether Laishou would actually herd the ox every day when he grew up remained to be seen, but Qingmu certainly did. Every night, he and Juhua would study late. He would also wake up very early in the morning, lead the ox out with a book tucked under his arm, and head off.
This morning, after getting up, he first went to the woodshed to check on the oak log. A few days ago, a few small wood ear mushrooms had sprouted sporadically on it, but neither he nor Juhua understood how it had happened. He had come up with an idea: he crushed some dried wood ear mushrooms into a powder and sprinkled it on the damp, rotting log. Then he checked it every day to see if more would grow.
When he saw tiny wood ear mushrooms sprouting from the log, he was thrilled and rushed to call Juhua over.
Juhua had just woken up and was still trying to shake off her morning grogginess when she heard her brother’s shout. Without even combing her hair, she rushed over. She, too, was overjoyed at the sight. It seemed this method of cultivating mushrooms worked. ’But as for how to do it *well*,’ she thought, ’we’re still completely in the dark.’
